In Tuesday’s win over Cal
State-San Marcos, he finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two
blocks and a steal. In Thursday’s 98-82 loss to St. Mary’s, Davies added 28
points, seven rebounds, five steals and a block.

The junior forward saved his
finest performance for Saturday when he put up 21 points and ripped down 22
boards in BYU’s 88-52 victory over San Diego. The 22 rebounds was the most by a
Cougar since Steve Trumbo’s 23 in January of 1982. His 20-20 performance was
BYU’s first since 1974-75.

“His mindset is to help the
team win any way he can, and when he’s playing that, we are hard to beat,”
Cougar senior Charles Abuou said.

MID-MAJOR PLAYER OF THE WEEK

C.J. McCollum, Lehigh Junior
Guard: McCollum –
one of the nation’s best rebounding guards – earned his 14th-career
double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds in the Mountain Hawks’ 76-67 at
St. Peter’s on Wednesday. He also had 5 assists and two steals as Lehigh
improved to 10-4.

On Saturday, McCollum
exploded for 34 points on 13-of-21 shooting, 3-of-7 from 3-point range and
5-of-5 from the foul line. McCollum, who had five rebounds, two assists and two
steals in the win, scored 20 of the Mountain Hawks’ 37 first-half points.

For the season, the 6-3 guard
is averaging 20 points, six rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.3 steals per contest.

SINGLE-GAME PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

Moe Harkless, St. John’s
Freshman Forward:
Harkless gave Red Storm fans a glimpse of the future with an eyebrow-raising
32-point, 13-rebound performance in Monday’s 91-67 win over Providence in
Monday’s Big East opener. The St. John’s freshman made 14 of his 17 field goal
attempts and added four assists and four steals.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Cincinnati:
The Bearcats went unbeaten without Yancy Gates, Cheikh Mbody and Octavius
Ellis, including this week’s victories over Oklahoma (56-55) and at Pittsburgh
(66-63) in their Big East opener.

Using a four-guard offense
for much of the six games, Cincinnati shot nearly 47 percent from the field.

Sean Kilpatrick, Dion Dixon,
Cashmere Wright and Jaquon Parker, who had 21 points in the win over Pitt, have
each taken turns carrying the Bearcats during the winning streak.

“I’m just proud of my team,”
Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “They give extreme effort at all times. They
are very easy to coach right now.”

“This is what UC basketball
is all about,” Kilpatrick said. “We ground out wins any way we can. We scrap
and we just run. That’s what we’re all about.”

UPSET OF THE WEEK

Princeton 75, Florida State
73, 3OT: Ian
Hummer and Douglas Davis each scored 25 points as the Tigers went into
Tallahassee and came away with a big road victory.

Princeton led 27-10 at the
half and the game went into overtime at 47-aside. The Tigers then outscored the
heavily-favored Seminoles 15-13 in the third overtime to improve to 7-7.

“The first half was crucial,”
said Hammer, who also had 15 rebounds and three blocked shots. “I think it
really shows the character of our team to come in on the road against a very
good ACC team. To withstand a triple overtime win, it shows a lot of character.
Hopefully we bring that into league play.”

WIN OF THE WEEK

Missouri State 77, Creighton
65: The defending
Missouri Valley regular-season champions knocked off this year’s league
favorite in both teams’ MVC openers.

The Bears beat Creighton
twice a year ago, including a 67-66 victory on a Kyle Weems last-second shot in
their second meeting. Weems was the culprit again this year. The reigning MVC
Player of the year poured in a career-high 31 points to help down the No. 19
Blue Jays.

“Anybody who watched (the
game), it’s clear the tougher team won,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.
“They were first to the floor. They were more aggressive on both ends of the
floor. They knew where they wanted to get the ball, and they got it there, and
we didn’t do much to fight it.”

LOSS OF THE WEEK

Cincinnati 66, Pittsburgh 63:
Sunday’s loss was
Pitt’s third straight, including two Big East games and two at home, where the
Panthers have been nearly unbeatable in the past.

“We can’t make excuses,” Pitt
coach Jamie Dixon told the Associated Press. “We need to find a way. We have
the guys to get it done.”

The Panthers, who are 11-4
overall and 0-2 in conference play, have lost three times at the Peterson
Events Center, where they were 166-13 all-time heading into this season.

PLAY OF THE WEEK

Stanford’s Josh Huestis’
block of Lazeric Jones in the final seconds of the Cardinal’s 60-59 win: UCLA had 12 chances to
take the lead in the second half Thursday against Stanford – and failed on all
12 tries.

Huestis made certain the
Bruins didn’t take their first lead in the waning seconds. The Cardinal
sophomore swatted Jones’ free throw line jumper with three seconds left to lift
Stanford to a 60-59 win in its Pac-12 opener.

“All I can say is it was an
unbelievable finish for us,” Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I thought
that the last possession, Josh Huestis came up as big as a young man could come
up in that situation.”

“That’s a memorable one,”
Huestis told the Associated Press. “Having that power to know that you can stop
someone from taking the game-winning shot is a great feeling.”

Jones led all scorers with 26
points.

THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL LIST

THE NATION’S BEST UNHERALDED
PLAYERS

Players who will never be
All-Americans but make their teams better simply by stepping on the floor:

1. Brian Conklin, St. Louis
PF (Sr.): Conklin
is a college basketball coach’s dream. He shows up every night, shoots high
percentages, plays defense and is clutch. He has nearly doubled his career
scoring average (15.4 ppg this season), is shooting 66 percent from the field
and 86 percent from the line. Conklin has only shot below 50 percent twice this
season.

2. Lewis Jackson, Purdue PG
(Sr.): Jackson
rarely lights up the scoreboard, but he’s a great college basketball player in
every other way. He penetrates and passes as well as about any other point
guard in the country, and he may be the best on-ball defender for a point guard
in the Big Ten. Yes, that includes Ohio State’s Aaron Craft.

3. Larry Anderson, Long Beach
State SG (Sr.):
Casper Ware and T.J. Robinson get the headlines, but the 49ers would not have
beaten Pitt and Xavier without Anderson. The senior only takes good shots and
makes them. He’s also a stellar passer and rebounder. Anderson ranks in the top
3 in scoring (15.1 ppg), rebounding (4.5), assists (3.5), steals (1.5), blocks
(0.5) and leads the team in field goal percentage (53.5) and 3-point percentage
(44.9).

4. Joe Burton, Oregon State
PF (Jr.): Burton
doesn’t look like a great basketball player and he doesn’t score a lot, but the
Beaver junior does all of the little things. He rebounds hard (6.5 per game),
plays defense (1.4 spg) and may be the nation’s best passing big man (a
team-best 3.7 apg).

5. Romero Osby, Oklahoma SF
(Jr.): Like
Conklin, Osby is having a breakout season. At 10.8 points per game, he is more
than doubling his career scoring averaging after transferring from Mississippi
State. He is a rebounding machine, grabbing at least 10 boards in seven games
this season, including an 18-rebound performance in the Sooners’ win over South
Carolina State. Osby is averaging a team-best 8.8 rebounds for the 10-2 Sooners.

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About Greg Mengelt

Contactgreg.mengelt@gmail.com

Background

Greg Mengelt is a 20-year veteran sports writer and a former Marine. He has covered professional and college basketball, professional and college football, professional baseball and hockey and auto racing for The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne and The News & Tribune of Southern Indiana. His first love has always been college basketball.